Binance Co-Founder Claims Surprise at America’s 180 Degree Turn on Cryptocurrency

Changpeng Zhao, co-founder and former CEO of Binance, said the United States shocked the crypto industry with what he described as a dramatic policy reversal during an interview on ARK Invest’s FYI innovation podcast hosted by Cathie Wood and Lorenzo Valente.

Notably, this marks one of the strongest endorsements yet from a leading industry figure on America’s changing stance toward digital assets.

Speaking during a wide-ranging discussion on the future of crypto, Zhao, widely known as CZ, spoke on how quickly Washington moved from hostility to support for the industry after years of regulatory crackdowns.

“I was very surprised by the 180-degree turn in the US,” Zhao said, referencing the shift from what he described as the Biden administration’s “war on crypto” to a more supportive environment for digital assets.

From Regulatory Crackdowns to Institutional Embrace

Zhao pointed directly to the wave of lawsuits and enforcement actions against major crypto firms over the last several years, arguing that the pressure slowed meaningful innovation across the sector.

According to him, many developers abandoned utility-driven blockchain applications and moved toward speculative assets such as memecoins because regulators created uncertainty around legitimate crypto projects.

Moreover, he noted that the atmosphere has now changed rapidly, especially as major financial institutions deepen their involvement in digital assets. Zhao highlighted the growing influence of tokenization and stablecoins, two areas he admitted had become far larger than he originally expected.

“Back in 2014, when Tether started, we thought stablecoins were just a temporary solution, Now they’ve become much bigger than what I expected.”

Zhao also credited Larry Fink and major Wall Street firms for accelerating institutional confidence in crypto markets. He said traditional finance no longer views blockchain as a fringe technology but increasingly sees it as a competitive necessity.

Additionally, the Binance co-founder added that firms that refuse to adopt blockchain and artificial intelligence risk becoming less relevant much faster than previous generations of companies disrupted by the internet or cloud computing.

AI and Tokenized Assets Drive the Next Crypto Wave

Beyond regulation, Zhao predicted that artificial intelligence will fuel the next major phase of crypto adoption. He argued that AI agents could eventually execute thousands more transactions than humans and would naturally gravitate toward crypto-based payment systems for speed and efficiency.

He also pointed to the explosive growth of tokenized real-world assets, including gold and oil trading on crypto exchanges, as proof that the line between traditional finance and crypto continues to fade.

According to Zhao, exchanges increasingly aim to become “everything platforms” where users can trade cryptocurrencies, commodities, prediction markets, and tokenized assets from a single ecosystem.

Nonetheless, despite growing competition, Zhao said Binance maintained its dominance by prioritizing user protection, keeping operational costs low, and building a global presence rather than relying heavily on a single market.